Entasopia Teacher Visit

On October 9th, we had the pleasure of bringing nine teachers and two parents from Entasopia Primary School to the Resource Center for a tour with Albert Kuseyo, followed by the very first presentation in the brand new meeting hall building! Although the teachers were seated on makeshift benches amidst wood shavings, sawdust, and woodworking tools, the setting was perfect and it was the ideal way to inaugurate the new building. Joel Njonjo briefly spoke about the baboon project and then Dave and Erika Christianson discussed the carnivore research before the entire group embarked on a game drive into the Olkiramatian Conservancy. The evening started with a zebra sighting, then a a sighting of a herd of 17 eland, and at the end we were fortunate to locate one of the collared lions. Ren, a male lion, was resting in a woodland and we spent about an hour watching him and another male resting in the bushes before they got up and stretched and walked out of sight. Though, they didn’t leave without saying goodbye….they roared back and forth to one another several times while they were still very close to the vehicles – a thrilling experience for all of us!

A productive September

Going into the second week of October, we have been reflecting on September and the incredible month we had. In less than two weeks we saw our first cheetah, elephant, and leopard and frequently came across less common species like kudu, eland, and oryx. Every time we go into the field holds promise of something new or exciting to see as well as excellent conditions for collecting data on predator-prey interactions. And oh how the data have been flowing in! We have not had any trouble finding the lions, and in fact, several of the prides have been found within one mile of each other and not far from camp, making it easier to record locations and behaviors of multiple lion groups in a single evening or morning.

This weekend we were excited to host Andrew Murray and Jasper Montana from the BBC's Natural History Unit. They are filming a series which is, for the moment at least, called 'Unnatural Histories' and they were interested in taking a look at the South Rift as an example of how people and wildlife coexist within the same landscape - a rare but precious part of their story. They were intrigued to find out how the local people feel about the concept of 'pristine wilderness' and the part that they as Maasai have played in shaping its ecology through time. They interviewed the Chairlady of the Olkramatian Women's Group, Titieyo Meiponyi and John Kamanga the Group Ranch Chairman as well as simply enjoyed the scenery.